Manchester City top table after Vincent Kompany’s remarkable goal

Manchester City’s captain, Vincent Kompany scored a remarkable goal, his first of the season, to drive Manchester City towards retaining the Premier League title.

Finally it comes down to this: if City win at Brighton next Sunday, they will be champions. There is nothing Liverpool in their final game at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers can then do to stop them.

Kompany’s goal felt as precious to City as the one he scored back in 2012, the header against Manchester United, that helped bring them their first Premier League title and the 33-year-old led the wild celebrations of relief as they finally broke down Leicester City, who had made it such a fraught evening.

It was City’s 100th goal at home in all competitions this season and they have scored few finer and none as dramatic as the powerful right-foot shot struck by the defender from fully 30 yards out. It made it a Blue Monday.

Incredibly, City have made it 13 wins in a row in a league and a 14th will mean they finish ahead of Liverpool and become the first team to retain the title since United back in 2009. “We’re Man City, we’ll fight to the end,” their fans sang and they have had to – throughout this campaign and in this game also as former Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers urged Leicester on.